Saturday, December 7, 2013

DAY 567 - Why Can't You be in Jesus' Team? (請按此處收聼廣東話Cantonese podcast click here)

**NEW link for the  15th: 13th 100 days 24 hours prayer campaign (We are going to use this 13th list leads up to the 15th. 13th from March 15 to June 22, 2013. 14th from June 22 to August 31, 2013, 15th from Sept. 1, 2013 to Dec. 9. 2013)

Want to know why I have been writing and recording my blogs and podcast daily since August 10, 2009? Click these three links:

Confirmation from John Stott in 2009: 
http://bishopsilas.blogspot.com/2009_07_01_archive.html
My MicroMacro Discipleship, A missing DNA in Discipleship Development: http://bishopsilas.blogspot.com/2009/07/introduction-micromacro-discipleship.html
Subject Shifting Devotion Method(Inspired by John Stott in 1991: http://bishopsilas.blogspot.com/2009/08/count-down-5-subject-shifting-devotion.html

                               Today's Reading: 2 Corinthians 1:23-2:4
** If you would like to learn a simple and good way of Daily Devotion method please read my “Count Down 5” from my Devotion on Fire blog:
http://bishopsilas.blogspot.ca/2009/08/count-down-5-subject-shifting-devotion.html
To use this simple and good way of Daily Devotion method please click this link:
 .Subject Shifting Devotion.pdf

Please click this link to read 2 Corinthians 1:23-2:4

Bible Study

     Paul as one of the most important and anointed Christian leaders in human history had a depression. How can that be? If this can happen to Paul, then it can happen to anyone.

      Christian leaders always need to face lots of opposition. The most hurting opposition that a Christian leader can get is what Paul got. Many leaders and teachers in Corinth resented his intrusion and he was in deep distress and wrote this second letter with tears hoping they understood that he loved them. Meanwhile, the situation in Ephesus was getting worse. So, Paul had big trouble in Ephesus, the place he was staying and rebellion across the sea, in Corinth.
Bishop N.T. Wright says ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N._T._Wright ) :
     No wonder Paul found himself sinking into the blackest depths of despair.  And then, when he did get a message to them again, it was first to say that he was coming soon, then that he wasn't.  And they just thought he was making it even worse.
     No, he says: it was to spare you that I decided not to come after all (verse 23).  Paul, emerging from the dark tunnel of depression, clinging for dear life to the God who raises the dead, still knows that this God has given him authority with the spiritual power to back it up, to build up the church; and that means, if necessary, confronting evil wherever it occurs. 

N.T. Wright. Paul for Everyone:2 Corinthians. Louisville,KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2004, p.17.

     How do you recognize and accept the spiritual authority of your leader(s)?If you are in Paul's position, how can you get through the darkness, depression and still can exercise your spiritual authority? 

Let's have a time to be still and give the Holy Spirit space to speak through the passage of scripture we have just read. Offer this time up to Jesus as you listen to him, while listening to "Gabriel's Oboe":  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmax47l2hLU

Spiritual Journal

    What I heard from Jesus today is: Why can't you be in Jesus' team?

    What I got from Jesus today is a question to all of us. There are so many problems in churches because everyone or each party think that they are right and on Jesus' team. Obviously those leaders and teachers in Corinth thought that they were in Jesus' team and Paul was not.

     Who is right and who is wrong? How can we discern and then make a decision to join Jesus' team? What Jesus told me today is very simple. The answer can be found in the Bible. Many places. Jesus gave me one today:
"But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.  But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions,divisions,  envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.  But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,  gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.  And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
 If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.  Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another."
                                                                    Galatians 5:16-26

      Please read this passage in Galatians carefully again now. I do hope and pray that you are able to have the discernment to join Jesus' team! Don't join the wrong team to kill Jesus' apostle just like what they did to Paul! 

Dear Lord Jesus, 
Lead us to be able to have the discernment so that we can join your team to build your body, our church.  In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

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一首愛歌


10,000 Reasons (Bless the Lord) Matt Redman
You may choose to follow my other daily blog: 
Daily Devotion on Fire 2(2 years plan -One year New Testament, one year Old Testament): 
http://bishopsilas2.blogspot.ca/
Daily Devotion on Fire (3 years and 3 months plan, one chapter a day to finish reading the whole Bible): 
http://bishopsilas.blogspot.ca/
Break.Build (40 days daily devotion- For Renewal or First Step for new Christians): http://www.breakbuild.blogspot.ca/

Emmanuel330 (40 weeks First Step Bible Study): 
http://emmanuel330.blogspot.ca/

This blog:

Discipler 123 (Daily devotion using N.T. Wright's NT for Everyone as source)
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是時候回頭轉向神了!

   今日博客的錄影: Nicky Gumbel  牧師今日靈修博客: https://us17.campaign-archive.com/?e=590b90010b&u=607cd553028b55c8cfb706e8a&id=94c5e0eae4 Nicky ...